After 80 years, a last turn away from Prohibition in Needham

Thursday

Jun 20, 2013 at 12:01 AMJun 20, 2013 at 8:11 PM

Needham and other towns in Massachusetts are finally repealing Prohibition, one step at a time.

Wei-Huan Chen

Matt Howell opened a cooler in Needham Wine & Spirits and picked out a six-pack of Stone India Pale Ale. Brewed in his hometown of San Diego—where alcohol is allowed in grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations and warehouse clubs—it was the first packaged alcohol the Needham resident has ever bought in this town.

“This is amazing,” he said. “I remember my wife and I were so shocked when we found out the Trader Joe’s here didn’t have a wine section. We’ve had to drive to Newton for two years to pick up wine.”

Howell was one of the first shoppers in Needham’s first liquor store. One of more than twelve thousand (72 percent of voters) to say yes to liquor stores in Needham last November, he represents a growing group of residents glad to end the town’s dry spell.

“I’m bewildered it took so long,” he said.

Needham and other towns in Massachusetts are finally repealing Prohibition, one step at a time.

Needham stayed dry after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Laws gradually loosened, allowing alcohol in hotels in 1966 and alcohol in restaurants with more than 100 seats in 1974. A question to legalize liquor stores failed in 1970, according to town documents.

“Retail alcohol has always been considered very controversial,” said Needham Economic Development Director Devra Bailin, who oversaw preliminary studies that, after a series of public hearings, led the Spring 2012 Town Meeting to place the liquor store question on last November’s ballot.

By August, three more liquor stores will be open: wine shop vinodivino on Highland Avenue, boutique liquor store Needham Center Wine & Spirits on Great Plain Avenue and discount store Bin Ends on Crawford Street, near I-95 in the town’s northern tip.

In neighboring Wellesley, where only restaurants are currently allowed to sell alcohol, selectmen are considering allowing wine in grocery stores. Belmont allowed liquor stores in 2007 after 148 years without one. Arlington allowed alcohol in large restaurants in 1978, alcohol in smaller restaurants in 1994, liquor stores in 2006 and beer and wine at its local movie theater in 2012.

Prohibiting alcohol, prohibiting business

Liquor store owners have long been frustrated by alcohol regulations, from outright prohibition in a local area to state-level red tape that can cause month-long delays in opening a store.

Last summer, resident Brian Shaw was excited to hear that Needham would vote to allow liquor stores and began to work with the owners of Belmont-based beer store Craft Beer Cellar to open a franchise in Needham. But when the time came, landlords favoring larger establishments rejected his proposal. Though residents and officials expressed their support of Craft Beer Cellar, the store simply faced too much competition during the first wave of applications, said Shaw.

“We were caught up in the process and there was a disconnect somewhere,” he said.

After Shaw was crowded out in Needham, he eventually turned to Newton.

“The process was very different. Newton’s been wet for quite a while. We weren’t competing with a whole group of people,” said Shaw.

Now, he plans to open Craft Beer Cellar in Newton Centre around November. He’s not sure if another store in Needham’s on the table anymore.

Many of the ten original applicants for liquor stores in Needham, including Shaw—selectmen winnowed the list down to five out of a maximum of six in February—also cited time-consuming applications with the state. Besides support from local authorities, prospective liquor store owners in Massachusetts need approval from the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.

Trader Joe’s and other chain supermarkets owned by the same company are allowed a maximum of five total liquor licenses in the state, although that limit is set to turn to seven in 2016 and nine in 2020.

Legislators such as State Senator James Eldridge, D-Acton, have called Massachusetts’ alcohol licensing process “bureaucratic.”

But Eldridge praised the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission after it announced on May 28 that it was “modernizing” and streamlining the licensing process. The commission eliminated a 25-year-old procedure involving tax releases sent to the Department of Revenue that usually caused delays of four to six weeks. According to the commission, the archaic process sometimes stopped liquor stores from opening for six months or longer.

Needham: a peculiar case

David Hanson, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the State University of New York, who has studied the history of alcohol and drinking for more than 30 years, said it’s rare to see dry towns outside of the South.

“Usually places that resist and continue to maintain some form of Prohibition are in conservative areas. They’re socially and politically conservative. That makes Needham’s long-term reluctance to join the modern world difficult to understand,” he said.

Hanson, a critic of the 21-year age minimum on legal drinking in the United States, said that alcohol prohibition can be counterproductive and is ineffective when it comes to curbing consumption.

During a series of public hearings in 2011, Needham residents and officials argued that liquor stores would jeopardize public safety and increase underage drinking.

But if the opponents of turning wet are misguided, so are its proponents, who argue liquor stores would give the town an economic boost, said Hanson.

“What’s interesting to me is that both sides are pretty much wrong. Once a place becomes wet, police find no increased crime. On the other hand, the other side is overestimating the positive effects. Once you become wet, you’ve leveled the playing field, but you haven’t become a mecca for tourism,” he said.

The first opponents of alcohol and drinking in Needham were mainly women associated with the town’s churches in the late 1800s, who argued against public drunkenness, according to town historian Gloria Greis.

Before the turn of the century, workers were frequently paid in rum and Needham’s officials would congregate at the local tavern. In those times, people preferred drinking beer over water because it was less likely to be contaminated, Greis said.

As a response, women’s organizations around the country spearheaded the Temperance Movement, advocating against alcohol. The movement ultimately led to Prohibition in 1920.

Those sentiments stayed within the town’s culture even after Prohibition was repealed. Needham chose to stay dry.

Now, Needham is home to a 17-page list a of alcohol regulations. These prohibit, among other things, pitchers of beer or arcade machines in restaurants serving alcohol. In liquor stores, chairs are banned, and “nips”—small bottles of spirits—must be hidden behind the counter.

When asked what going wet after 80 years means for Needham, resident Amanda Holland said that, in this day and age, a decision to welcome alcohol is neither surprising nor dramatic.

“We live in a liberal town. It makes you laugh that this was an issue,” she said.

Others are watching the wave of new liquor stores with a cautious eye. Selectman John Bulian was one of the 27 percent to say no to liquor stores.

For him, the opening of Needham Wine & Spirits “changes a little bit of what Needham was. Is that a good or bad thing? I don’t know. I guess we’ll see.”

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